The studio was founded by Blizzard veteran Jeff Strain, who contributed programming to both Diablo and StarCraft and, according to today's press release, formed "the initial team and kicked off development on the wildly successful MMO World of Warcraft [in 1999] while taking on the roles of team lead and lead programmer on the project." Come April 2000, Strain and two others had left Blizzard to co-found Guild Wars developer ArenaNet.

Unsurprisingly given the long incubation period that MMO development usually entails, the studio did not specify a release date or specific platform in today's announcement. However, the company did note that it will "pioneer a new development model that will create a new breed of MMO built from the ground-up for console gamers. "

"Undead Labs is committed to bringing to life an MMO loaded with action, humor and, of course, a whole lotta zombies, because the world doesn't need more dragons," explained the company. "Nothing screams funny quite like wading into a group of rotting zombies with a lawn chair and a box of sharpened #2 pencils, and nothing says fun quite like doing it with your friends, whether online or on your couch."